Preventing boiler explosions



(No Model.)

W. TITGOMB.

r PR'EVENTING BOILBR EXPLOSIONS.

No. 339,598. Patented Apr. 6, l.

n PEYEHS Pham-ummm. wamingmn. D. C.

Unirse STATES PATENT @erica TWINSLOV TITCOMB, OF TNATllRVlLLE, MANE.

PREVENTING BOILER EXPLOSIONS.

SPECFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 339,598,13ated April 6.1886.

Application filed December 1B, 1885. Serial No. 186,068. (No model.)

T0 all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, WiNsLoW TrrcoMB, a citizen of the United States,residing at Waterville, in the county of Kennebec and State of Maine, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Preventing Boiler Ei:- plosions5 and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the in vention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the saine, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, and to the letters and iigures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specilication.

My invention consists iii the method hereinafter described of preventing boiler eXplos-ions by reducing the liability of steam-boilers to crack and leak after lilling the same; and it consists in filling them with hot water and steam under pressure, substantially as hereinafter described.

One of the principle causes of the deterioration of steam-boilers, and particularly of locomotive-boilers, is believed to be the cracking of the inner walls of the iire-box or water-legs oi' the boiler, and the loosening of the stay bolts and tubes in the boiler,caused by filling the boiler after cleaning or blowing off with cold water, and then making a very hot lire to heat the water quickly. The cause of the cracking and opening above referred to is the unequal exposure of the boilerand its tubes to the heat, the surfaces directly exposed to the ilames bein g more rapidly expanded than other parts not so exposed. The operation of raising steam is hasten ed by the use of highly combustible fuel--such as oil, tar barrels and similar material g but the more the iire is forced the greater is the liabilityr to crack the inner walls of the lire-box.

TWhen a locomotive-boiler has been blown out and refilled with cold water several hours must be spentiii raising steam, the locomotive of course being useless in the meantime. To remedy the evil above described, when the boiler is cinpty,or immediately after cleaning out the boiler in the usual manner, instead of iilling the same with cold water,l` fill the boiler with steam and hot water under pressure by any convenient means. The steam so forced into the boiler instantaneously fills and heats uniformly every part of the saine, including the tubes and the walls of the lire-box, and if now a :[ire be started in the rire-box the engine will soon be in a condition to run, and may run at once if the steam and water be forced in at a suiilciently high pressure and temperature. I thus avoid the loss of time commonly consumed in getting steam,andthe great expense and delay, and sometimes danger, caused by the crackin g,leaking, and bursting of locomotiveboilers when filled and heated in the usual way, besides effecting a con siderable saving of fuel.

The accompanying drawing illustrates my invention, and represent a locomotive-.engine standing on the track, a stationary boiler .set in brick work (a part of the brick-work being cut away to show the boiler and lire-grata) and a pipe leading from the stationary boiler to the blow-oft` cock of the locomotive.

In carrying inyinvention into practice I may use for filling the boiler of the locomotive-engine E a stationary boiler, A, of the usual construction, and set in brick-work A', above a furnace, Athe grate-bars of which are shown at A. The boiler A is preferably located in the round-house where the engine is cleaned, or where it is kept when not in use, and from this boiler A a pipe, B, is carried to a point over track C, onto which the locomotive may be run to be filled. The pipe B is provided with the stop-valves D, of usual construction. The end of the pipe B farthest from the boiler A is secured bya union joint or coupling, F, of ordinary construction, to a short pipe attached to the blow-off cock. The boiler A should be of sufficient capacity to ill one or more locomotive-boilers, and should be con stantly filled with steam at a high pressure, say, a pressure of sixty pounds or upward to the square inch. Then the pipe B is connected with the feed-pipe, as above explained, the valve D is opened and steam and hot water from the boiler are driven through said pipe into the locomotive-boiler until the same are supplied. The pipe B leaves the boiler A below the water-line XV.

One locomotive-boiler may be lled from another by connecting tlie blow-off cocks,and in ordinary cases this is the method which would be adopted in preference to using a stationary IOO boiler. Vlhen this method is employed the injector of the iilling-boiler is kept running While the operation of lling is going on, so that the supply of steam and hot Water in the said boiler does not become exhausted.

A nest or series of stationary boilers located near each other may be filled one from another substantially as the locomotiveboiler is filled from a stationary boiler in the foregoing description, requiring the raising the Water from a low temperature to the boiling-point in one of the boilers only, thus exposing only one of the boilers to the danger of cracking and opening above referred to.

It is evident that by tlieuse of my invention a great saving of fuel and time is effected over the ordinary mode of making steam from cold Water, as now practiced.

I' am aware that heretofore portable hotfwater receptacles on street-railroad cars have WINsLoW TirooMB,

Vitn esses:

H. D. BATES, S. IV. BATES. 

